


What War Brings

by stuck_in_rem



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Azula is insane, Canon Rewrite, Crystal Catacombs (Avatar), F/M, Lots of Angst, Zuko Needs a Hug, Zuko is confused, does not follow canon in the later chapters, from eachother, im bad at tagging, maybe smut?, so does katara, starts at crystal catacombs, still haven't made up my mind, zuko x katara
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:21:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27808255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stuck_in_rem/pseuds/stuck_in_rem
Summary: "That, Katara thinks, is what war does to people. It forces maturity onto them. She had seen it in her friends. She saw them change along with her until they were all different people than the ones that had met what seemed like years ago. She had seen it in her brother, who had to learn to step up to a challenge and think critically. She has seen it in her father, choosing to leave his children for their future. She had seen it in Aang, taking a whole world of responsibilities on his back. She had seen it in herself, when she first put on her mothers necklace.And that is why when she hears him talk about losing his mother across from her in the cold mist of the cave, drowning in green light seeping from the crystals around them, it is the first time she really sees him."
Relationships: Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka & Suki (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	1. Chapter 1 - "When She First Sees Him"

**Author's Note:**

> HEY! so this is my first ever fic that i am publishing on this platform. hope you guys like. ill post the next chapter soon just give me a week ;) 
> 
> twitter handle: @stuck_in_rem

When she first sees him she thinks he is nothing more and nothing less of a pompous privileged prick and the minute he reached for her grandmother she would swear to herself that she would hate him until her very last breath.

Many moon cycles later she would come to find the promise she had made to herself broken. That Katara, the one from the small water tribe village, was gone. She had been replaced by a new Katara. A prepared, mature, and hotheaded one.

She came to find that that was what war did. It forced change onto the world, for better or for worse. In Katara’s experience, it was mostly for worse.

She had lived this war for the last few months, ageing far past her years for the duration of them. That, Katara thinks, is what war does to people. It forces maturity onto them. She had seen it in her friends. She saw them change along with her until they were all different people than the ones that had met what seemed like years ago. She had seen it in her brother, who had to learn to step up to a challenge and think critically. She has seen it in her father, choosing to leave his children for their future. She had seen it in Aang, taking a whole world of responsibilities on his back. She had seen it in herself, when she first put on her mothers necklace.

And that is why when she hears him talk about losing his mother across from her in the cold mist of the cave, drowning in green light seeping from the crystals around them, it is the first time she really sees him. She comes to her own realization that he has been living this war for far longer than any of them have. He has lived this war his entire life. Katara wonders how she hadn't come to that conclusion before. It shows in his face. In the sadness veiled across his crimson, gold phoenix eyes. In the tired lines that outline his features. In his messy coal black hair. In the bright red scar that spread out across the left side of his face. It shows in his attitude towards the world. Anger first, Frustration second and absolutely nothing else. In that moment, Katara is hit with the weight of all of their words and the weight of his eyes meeting with hers and the weight of even the possibility of understanding. Understanding which she had afforded to everyone else in the world except him. The air between them is still and treacherous.

“I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier.”, she says,

“It’s just… whenever I think of the enemy… I see your face.”

Hurt flashes across his eyes, “My face” he touches his scar, “I see”

She cautiously inches towards him before she even knows what she is doing.

“No… no tha- that's not what I meant.”

He stands as still as a tree, looking down at her. They are close enough to feel the gentle breeze of each other's warm breaths across their faces.

“I get it. I used to think this scar defined me. The mark of the cursed prince.”, there was a lingering sadness in his voice, “Destined to hunt the Avatar forever. Now I know I can shape my own destiny, even if I have to live with the scar.”

Katara doesn’t know what took over her body when she did it, but nevertheless she raised her hand and slowly placed it on his scar. She expected him to flinch, but at the touch of her skin on his, he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Katara thinks this to be all too much and yet not enough for her. She craves and yearns to be closer. And there is something in the air. Something neither can comprehend but both feel the heavy weight of.

“I can heal it”, she tells him, holding her breath for his response.

He looks up at her and she can see her own reflection in his eyes.

“What”, he whispers for only her to hear.

Katara moves her right hand from his scar and places it on the vial that hangs on her chest.

“It’s spirit water.”, she tells him, “I don't know how much it'll help but I can use my healing powers and i-”

“Why”, he interrupts.

A pause.

“Why what?”

“Why would you use that on me?”

When he says this, the answer pops into her head almost instantly. This answer scares her to her very core. It carries a truth that she had yet to realize. And in this moment, all she wants is to tell him, “Because I understand you now. Because we aren’t as different as I had once thought we were. Because I _see you_ now.” But when she opens her mouth to speak, she is stopped by reality in the form of a familiar voice and familiar arms wrapping around her.

Aang’s embrace is warm and tight and Katara sees Zuko wrapped in Iroh’s arms. She is unable to understand the moment that had just been so abruptly ended and so when Aang speaks to her all she can hear is Zuko’s breathing. She then is led away from him but all she knows in that moment are his eyes.

His phoenix eyes.

Their gaze only breaks when he is out of sight. That is when she comes back to reality. Her reality was running through a dark cave with Aang’s hand in hers. Her reality was putting her thoughts and feeling second to battle. Later she will berate herself for being disappointed at Aang’s interruption, coming to the conclusion that she should have known they were on borrowed time. But now there is only one thought in her mind. Get to Appa.

She and Aang get to a clearing in the caves. They split up and look around for a way out when Katara sees a flash of blue racing towards Aang. Like instinct she deflects it back to its owner, Azula, and then they are locked in battle She no longer knows the outside world, she no longer is pondering over her recent encounter with Zuko.

All she knows in this moment is movement. Azula’s feet and hands. Her water. The fire. It is a deadly dance that Katara has been locked in one too many times. Azula is known for getting her opponent to lose focus and she pushes this on to Katara with her full strength. Katara does not let Azula’s snarky remarks get to her, because she knows one truth at this moment, and that is that she must get Aang and go to Appa. Her movements are smooth and water glides with the sway of her hands with ease. Azula’s movements are sharp and she shoots and darts and ducks and runs at lightning speed.

Suddenly Azula stops, and locks eyes with her. She begins to grin and Katara ducks to the left, missing Azula’s burst of lightning by an inch. She picks herself up and they are locked in battle again. Katara's water whip meets her flames forming a blue line of heat and cool before it is cut in half by an outsider.

And when she looks over to the source, expecting to see an old Dai Lee man in his uniform, there he is with his phoenix eyes and coal black hair.

“Come on ZuZu, you know what to do.”

Katara meets his eyes and she pleads to him with her own. He stays still, she holds her breath. He does not know that he is holding her heart in his hands. So when he shoots towards Aang he knows not of the scar that he has left on her heart. She is overwhelmed by the weight of him, by his decision, by their exchange of words and touch, by confusion, by anger, by disappointment, and then, by reality. She thinks herself foolish for being so careless with her emotions, letting him in as she was prone to do with so many. However, what Katara had yet to understand was that while her heart had scarred, his had broken quite some time ago. So this Katara, the mature, prepared, hotheaded, and hurt one, swears to herself that she will not be swayed by Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation.

Never again.

Quickly jumping back into battle, she keeps Azula occupied so that Aang can deal with him. Aang tries to use earthbending to keep the prince off his feet but it backfires and sends Aang across the cave. Azula sees this as opportunity and heads towards him. Katara knows this means she will have to face him. She decides she will have the upper hand, pushing all of her emotions out through movement, she water whips him in the back and he turns his attention towards her. They are both in fighting stances, yet neither has thrown a blow and this standstill makes Katara think she is starting to lose her sanity.

“I thought you had changed.”, she shoots her words at him.

The words hit him hard, it shows in the way his eyes softened. If he shows hurt, it comes as fast as it leaves and his features quickly turn bitter.

“You don’t know me”

“Clearly not”, she spits back at him.

“But I wanted too”, the words that slipped from her lips were unintentional, and possibly fueled with too much emotion for their current situation, but they are enough to catch him off guard and she takes this chance to shoot at him with all that she’s got.

Azula catches wind and shoots with such veracity that it knocks her against a cave wall and her world comes crashing down. She struggles to stand up and her hair has loosened from her braid. As she lies on the floor she can see the shadow of him and she knows it's Zuko. Even with blurry vision she knows it's him. When she realizes she can't hear Aang she frantically looks around for him. She sees just as his eyes and arrows glow a gleaming white before...

_**POP.** _

...

Her muffled sobs die down when she falls asleep in Sokka’s embrace. She had done all that she could possibly do and she wasn't sure that would even be enough to save Aang. The spirit water she had not long ago promised to another, lay within his veins. With all Katara’s might, she wished that it was enough. She focuses her thoughts on Zuko, and she comes to the decision that she will try her hardest to hate him. After all, she had already made that promise.


	2. Chapter 2 - "The Sun God's Gift"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi babes! first of all, let me begin by saying thank you to the people who read chap 1 last week and for all of the sweet comments. they were so sweet and really encouraged me while I wrote this chapter. i've also been developing a more solid idea for where the story is going and Im pretty sure I've got the plot down to a T. very excited to get there!!! warning: ANGST OVERLOAD. its my bread and butter ;) 
> 
> next chapter should be up in about a week. 
> 
> hope you guys enjoy!
> 
> twitter handle: @stuck_in_rem

Since her youth, Katara had always been fond of routines. She remembers when her mother would wake her up at the crack of dawn, when not even the koalaotters would be out of their caves, so that they could watch the sunrise over a peace ridden, icy landscape. Her mother had a deep love and understanding of nature. Katara saw it in the way her eyes lit up as the orange sun began to cut through the horizon and in her constant eagerness to assure they would never miss it, not for a single day. Only on special occasions would they steal her fathers fishing boat, in hushed giggles, and row out until they could see it rise above the sealine. It was on those occasions when Kya would turn to her daughter and explain that this event was sent from the sun god, Agni, to signify a new day and a new beginning. After the sun was well above the ground, they would start the rest of their day. Katara would have history lessons with her grandmother while Sokka went to tribe meetings with Hakoda. At midday they would throw snowballs at each other and play together until dinner and every dinner they ate was family time where they would share stories of their days with witty banter from Sokka every now and then. A moment’s happiness. She and Sokka’s days would end with a kiss goodnight from their parents as they tucked them in their cots. 

When Kya died, a slightly older Katara would wake herself up at the crack of dawn, when not even the koalotters would be out of their caves, so that she could watch the sunrise over a no longer peaceful, icy landscape. She would go about the rest of her days doing chores and her afternoon play sessions with Sokka had been replaced with fishing for the remaining tribe members when her father had left to fight in the war. But she always had those quiet moments at the start of the day under an orange tinted light. That, Katara thought, truly was a gift. And it was. No longer just from a sun god but also from her own mother. It was something only the two of them shared and so to Katara it seemed as the last connection she had to her. She hadn’t missed a sunrise since, not for a single day. And on days in which the sun was so bright it would explode orange, yellow, and pink hues across the sky at its arrival, Katara would hold her mothers necklace so close to her heart that she could feel her mothers love through endless layers of fur and tears. 

Despite all her trouble, Katara always found herself a routine and if something out of the ordinary were to ever impose that routine she would simply accommodate and adhere to an updated version. That became close to impossible when she met Aang. Her life had gone from never leaving the only world she knew, her tribe, to an explosion of different people and landscapes. With that, and the fact that she was traveling with the avatar, came many troubles. Katara lived in a life that was, all of sudden, constant chaos. Something she had never known of in her previous life. So in her many travels with him, she did her best to keep what little parts of a routine she could. And in her many travels, she would see hundreds of different sunrises, a different one each day. Whether it’d be from Appa’s back or from a room in a Earth Kingdom palace, her mothers gift was always with her. And when something major would come up, as things tended to do with frequency around Aang, she would simply accommodate and adhere to the situation. 

But not even 14 years worth of constant routine could help her current reality. It had been a full moon cycle since Aang's encounter with Azula and he had yet to wake. Countless hours of healing, and not even so much as a word from him. It only took her a fortnight on the stolen fire nation navy ship, to fall into a new routine. Healing, training, healing again, supper, and one last healing session before bed. Young Katara never would have imagined where she’d be now, and she could never have imagined that what she most longed for, was for something.. anything to happen. She had developed a disdain for the consistency of the routine she had fallen into. The stagnancy of it all weighed on her like if she were carrying the world in her hands. And she was carrying it, because she knew that if Aang.. if he.. didn’t recover, it would be on her. The fate of the world falls on her hands and it crumbles her insides until she can't know anything else. The crumbling feeling comes and goes with as much uncertainty as the waves that sway below the deck’s railing. 

She stands. Gripping the cold metal bar with her left and bending a couple of droplets into shapes with her right. The moon is full and bright that night, so it comes as no surprise that she sees her brother out as well. A ways away from her, eyes wide open and locked to the sky. Katara approaches her saddened brother with an all too knowing look.

“Hey"

“Hi!”, he says, startled, “Sis! Wha- what are you doing out at this hour?”

“Could ask the same to you.”, and she crosses her arms with a smirk.

Sokka takes a moment to respond. He shuts his eyes tightly, opens them again, as if wishing that at opening them Katara would simply disappear. 

He sighs, “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh yeah. Try me”

“Yes, because you are CLEARLY a love expert.”, he uses that sarcastic tone that gets her riled up ready to challenge him.

“I know stuff about love! I love you and Toph and Aang and Gran-Gran and dad and App-”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Then what do you mean Sokka?”

“There are different kinds of love. Friendships are one. They provide happiness and belonging. Family is another and it brings security and stability. They are two completely different things that fulfill different basic human needs. Just as romantic love is a completely different thing. One of which you know nothing of.”, he states matter of factly. 

“Well, I know YOU cause you're my brother, Sokka. So if you just told me what was wrong, I could probably help.”

He places his head in his hands and speaks through muffled tones, “It’s Suki.”

“I just… I can’t stand it that they have her… and who knows what kind of punishments there are inflicting on her. It feels like I’ve failed her… just how I failed Yue. Like it’s my fault that the people I care about get hurt. It is all my fau-” He is cut off by a tight, warm embrace. 

Katara has known her brother for the majority of his life. That’s why she isn’t startled, or surprised for that matter, when he begins to cry into her shoulder.

“Sokka it’s not your fault”, she whispers, “It never has been.”

“We are at war, and all of the things that have happened to the people you care about, you could not have prevented from happening to them. You couldn’t have prevented Yue’s destiny to become the moon and you couldn’t have prevented Azula capturing Suki because they were both things out of your control.” 

“I miss her. Alot. All I can think about, when I'm not in meetings with dad or drawing up plans for the eclipse, is her. And I don’t think that I’ll ever get to see her again.”

“I don’t believe that.”, she pulls away, with each arm gripping his shoulders to look at him dead on, “We will find Suki, I’m sure of it. And she is going to be just fine, that girl can handle anything.” She grins at him and Sokka pulls away, looking to the sky once more.

Sensing an end to the conversation, Katara sighs in defeat and slowly retreats to her cabin. 

It pains her to see her brother cry. But she understands his pain. It is the pain that they have all had to live through. It is what shapes and changes people. It is what war brings. Katara also, though unwillingly, understands not being able to get a recurring thought out of your head. Because for the past month, the same thought had been recurring in hers. It was more of a scene, than a thought really. It was the image of the broken Fire Nation Prince standing before her, standing in a sea of green light. 

...

As she stood on the deck the next morning, watching the Sun God’s gift, she wondered how much distance separated them, and why the unknown distance weighed her down. She is shaken out of her trance by the sound of clattering pots, signifying Sokka’s daily attempt at breakfast. 

New day, she thinks. 

New beginning.


End file.
